LocalBitcoins announces its closure after 10 years of operation

The platform’s customers have 12 months to withdraw funds

09.02.2023 - 13:10

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What’s new? On February 9, Finnish peer-to-peer (P2P) bitcoin exchange LocalBitcoins announced its closure. The company’s representatives noted that the platform was created to globally distribute bitcoin and had been fulfilling this mission for more than 10 years. That said, despite efforts to overcome challenges during the ongoing crypto winter, the decision has been made to cease operations. The LocalBitcoins team urged customers to withdraw funds from the platform within 12 months.

Information on the LocalBitcoins website

How will the exchange be shut down? On February 9, the exchange stops registering new users, and on February 16, it stops bitcoin trading and using the internal wallet (except for withdrawals). After February 17, LocalBitcoins customers will only be able to log in to withdraw their bitcoins. Trading and wallet services will not be available. Although customers have 12 months to withdraw funds, the exchange team recommended that they do so without waiting for the deadline.

In October 2022, LocalBitcoins stopped serving Russian users due to EU sanctions. An exception was made only for people with dual citizenship of the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

On December 10, 2022, the OTC trading platform of Genesis Block, a leading provider of retail crypto services in Hong Kong, stopped operating. The reason was liquidity problems.

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